Hey guys; having now totally finished up FSN (including all of the Taiga workshops and the extra end with Ilya and Taiga); I just went and made a MASSIVE post on my blog which contains my thoughts and opinions on the matter. If its not imposing, would you guys check it out?

And, so this topic isn't stupid and obsolete, please use it to post your own thoughts about the game and its routes as a whole, too. (As in, not just Heavens Feel, but everything! Give Saber and Rin some luv too!).

On a side note, I feel no shame in admitting I'm GAR for Beserker. Discuss that too, if you like... (ROFL)

If I'm way out of line here, I apologise. Please slap my wrists and I shall delete the topic myself. In before oh shi- Shiki is a moderator, noooo! (has line of death cut)

Oh, I thought I'd be picking a contraversial answer by selecting UBW as my favourite, but it looks like so far, people agree with that sentiment.

I too agree with the schematic of:
UBW > HF > Fate
Though I don't believe an awful lot seperates them; they're all extremely cool in their own ways (as my commentary states...)

I think Rin manages to get an awesome role in all three routes too, from her gem explosion against Beserker in Fate, to her Zeltretch Jewel sword pwnage in Heavens Feel, and of course her kung-fu Caster smackdown in UBW. Not to mention she keeps turning up in her SD form for many of the Taiga workshops.

UBW is the perfect mix of emotional "WOW! and "Damn...that sucks", and fighting of "NO FREAKING WAY MAN! I DID NOT JUST SEE THAT!" to make it great. The others focused to much on one aspect and just started to gray together.

Mkilbride wrote:UBW is the perfect mix of emotional "WOW! and "Damn...that sucks", and fighting of "NO FREAKING WAY MAN! I DID NOT JUST SEE THAT!" to make it great. The others focused to much on one aspect and just started to gray together.

... ok, that's funny.

"Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order and everything becomes... chaos.
I'm an agent of chaos."Fate/world providence

Basically, for me, the game got more awesome as I progressed through the routes. All of them being really enjoyable, I can't say I've come across a similar story(or set of stories) that even comes close to the complexity and completeness of Fate as a whole. The routes add together really well to give complex personalities and traits of all the characters, and extensive information behind the Holy Grail War as a whole(including what happens when it goes horribly wrong).

My impression of the routes is roughly as follows:

► Show Spoiler

Fate --- Shirou in fate was incredibly annoying, I just couldn't stand him. Though I enjoyed the development in the relationship between Shirou and Saber towards the end of the route. I really didn't like the ending, just as the relationship between Shirou and Saber reaches a point where it's getting interesting, it ends. The realta nua ending does not help this situation in any way(I found it rather aweful.)The fights in Fate are failry consistent in quality but there were none that really wowed me. Fate probably also loses points due to me having watched the anime first.

UBW --- Shirou still fairly annoying, but not quite as bad as in fate. I didn't much like the relationship between Shirou and Tosaka, I found it... fairly boring and too awkward. The major defining factor in UBW that makes it great is the fights and GAR towards the end. Almost in an instant Shirou stops being annoying and becomes awesome. UBW contains my two favorite fights out of all the routes being the Archer Vs Shirou and Gil Vs Shirou fights. Also, it contains the most awesome one-liners(Drown in your ideals, got enough swords in stock, etc.) The true ending of UBW is my favorite of all the endings in the game.

HF --- The way Shinji dies. That is enough to make HF win. While Shirou never gained the GAR he had at the end of UBW, he was consistently bearable, saving points lost in the other routes. The relationship between Shirou and Sakura was my favorite out of all the routes, it was the only one that felt 'complete' by the end, I was completely satisfied with it. It also contained my third and fourth favorite fights being Kotomine Vs True Assassin and Shirour+Rider Vs Dark Saber. I found the overall story the best of the three routes by far. It's dark nature and the progression of Sakura towards a more evil personality sold me pretty quickly. I enjoyed the true ending except for the way Shirou survived, I just didn't like the puppet idea.

people keep screaming over fate shirou while ubw shirou is clearly more childish than ever... fate shirou pursued his ideals because it's beautiful, not because some childish reasoning like "I know what I will become if I go down that path, and the fact that you're tring to warn me makes me even more radical in pursuing that path! so shut up already!" *slaps archer in the face*

honestly, I would say ubw is the most half-baked of all those 3 routes. heck, besides archer's past, it explains almost nothing about f/sn. nothing at all.

"Introduce a little anarchy. Upset the established order and everything becomes... chaos.
I'm an agent of chaos."Fate/world providence

UBW. it's a good and manly story, who cares about "explaining about fsn or the holy grail" the nasuverse sucks anyway.
And it's in UBW that Shirou follows the ideal because is beautiful, not in Fate.
Fate is a simple shonen with people not dying when killed and Shirou learning shit as a person. He stays as a child blindly following the ideal. At least he learns that he can fail , what being a superhero really means and what he will go through in ubw . And decides to challenge his fate.
I don't like HF. i just can't like or feel pity for Sakura. Kotomine saves the route. Ilya is cute. Overrated route was overrated.

Raitei wrote:I wonder why people keep screaming over fate shirou while ubw shirou is clearly more childish than ever... fate shirou pursued his ideals because it's beautiful, not because some childish reasoning like "I know what I will become if I go down that path, and the fact that you're tring to warn me makes me even more radical in pursuing that path! so shut up already!" *slaps archer in the face*

*seconds every single word from this text*

the last part of it however.....

dunno, just LOVED the development of archer.

besides, my computer almost blew up by the unbearable amounts of raw GARness during Archer Vs Lancer ) (easily the best fight of the game imo)

"We want a game that's going to chop us the second we screw around, or just flatten us at its whim... until we finally beat it. They demand more of us, and we rise to the occasion because we're that good. And that feels good. And that's why we game."
Rus McLaughlin, IGN